Sunday 30th September 2018 - Ingleborough G/NP-005, Whernside G/NP-004 & Winter Hill G/SP-010

Gig: Joe Longthorne

Venue: Viva Backpool

Originally I was going to route across to the Fylde coast via the Forest of Bowland and activate my two remaining G/SP summits for 2018 - Ward’s Stone G/SP-003 and White Hill G/SP-006.  Activators who have done these two would understand why they get left to last, and why motivation was not particularly high!  Ultimately, I thought I’d swallow the extra mileage and have a great day’s walking in the Dales.  The day started with a fabulous full breakfast at Haworth YHA - which has become a favourite accommodation of mine when gigging away from home!  They start serving breakfast at 0730 too, so I could be away and on the road by 8am.

I parked above the Hill Inn at Chapel-le-Dale and commenced my walk along the bridleway.  This starts as a nice easy walk on limestone and boardwalks until the steep pull up to the ridge.  On the ridge I encountered hundreds of athletic looking guys and gals carrying mountain bikes up the hill.  It turned out it was the day of the Three Peaks Cycle-cross event.  At the summit were several marshals, complete with mountain rescue radio kit.  I made five QSOs on 2m FM, but made the mistake of announcing - and self-spotting - the reference as NP-006.  I only realised this error when Jimmy M0HGY was on the phone later and asked me how I’d got on up Great Shunner Fell! 

Next was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to - the steep drop off the summit plateau on the Chapel-le-Dale side - even though I’d done it without difficulty twice before.  And I did so again, but I could tell that a lady ahead of me was most uncomfortable with it.  She had actually turned back at that point such was her nervousness.  I’d said to myself that I would squeeze in Whernside G/NP-004 if I was back at the car by 1230 local.  Well, it was 1245 - so I thought I’d go for it!